Dan’s Blog

As computer science and information technology students, the world you will be working in keeps changing before your eyes. One of the latest changes is the movement of bits from desktops and local servers to “the cloud”. Cloud-based computing is the talk of almost every computer conference these days. What is the cloud? How will it affect you and those you will support with your computer skills?
This Monday evening you have a first hand look at one of the major elements of the cloud infrastructure - an enterprise level data center. I look forward to taking you on a tour of The Worthwhile Company’s primary data center provider, Immedion.

In preparation I’d like you to do 4 things

• visit Immedion’s website and familiarize yourself a little with this company
• make sure you are familiar with cloud-based computing
• contemplate what you think life is like working in a place that provides the infrastructure for cloud-based computing
• consider 3 major challenges you think would face a data center as it seeks to keep up with providing the best in cloud-based computing infrastructure

Once you have visited the data center, please come back here and post your thoughts.

• Attend Interviewing Workshop (see calendar of events for date/time and location)
• create a blog comment which includes
  • links with summaries to at least 5 sites dealing with this topic
  • tips you picked up from Workshop

Please share you thoughts and reactions to the trip we made to Clemson computer science graduate school.

Include an overview of the research projects we saw. Also comment on your graduate school plans, fears, concerns, interests.

Also consider sending a thank-you to Dr Pargas his students who took the time to share with you their research projects.

There were 2 articles which captured my attention this week as I think about and pray for my graduating seniors - employment trends @ bls.gov and an article on fox news about a major medical breakthrough in cancer research. I would love to see a few of you seniors take a look at these 2 areas and focus your class presentation on this or a related topic.

October employment figures were released this week! If I were in your shoes and wanting to find a job in the next several months, I think I would be interested in knowing where I could combine my computer skills to maximize the probability I could find a job.

Check out the current employment trends and see how medical and mining jobs are increasing while everything else appears to be decreasing!

Here is a fascinating article from fox news yesterday. Consider how computer technology is being used to help medical researchers search DNA to find patterns which can lead to cures for diseases like cancer and diabetes!

One of the exciting prospects for those trained in computer and information technology, is that with a little background learning, you can apply your skills to almost any area that is experiencing positive employment growth! For your class presentation I would like you each to consider an area which it might be worthwhile for you to combine computer science in order to increase your employ-ability.

Post a comment here on what your presentation topic will be. Include at least 3 web references to your topic which you plan to include in your study.

Tuesday is a big day in the life of America. At the end of the day we will likely be in about the same shape we are in today. However like the rudder on a ship, our country’s direction could be drastically impacted. Personally I’m not thrilled with either candidate, however the following was brought to my attention about one of the candidates. It has caused me to spend more time in prayer begging the God of Heaven to intervene in the election to keep this very evil man from being able to so forcefully change the direction of our country!

Pro-abortion and supporter of infanticide (killing babies after delivery). Led the fight against the Born Alive Act as a state senator in Illinois. In fact, he is ranked as the #1 most liberal senator in the US Senate. Supports partial birth abortion. The only US Senator to vote against the Born Alive Act (which grants medical treatment and human rights to abortion survivors. Without this, babies are left on a shelf to die). His abortion views are so extreme that he is alone in defending this type of procedure. Among the first bills he intends to sign is the Freedom of Choice Act which would eliminate any and all restrictions on abortion and eliminate parental notification and enable criminal charges against those who protest outside abortion clinics. The next bill he wants to sign is a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Voted to withdraw funding from our troops while they were in the field of battle. Stated he would sign a bill removing the secret ballot from union votes.

When first elected to the Illinois state senate, he ran on not only the Democrat Party, but also sought the endorsement of the “New Party” (which is a Marxist organization, home to former members of the Communist PartyUSA). His mentor was a Marxist, Bill Ayres who was an founder of the weather underground is a Marxist , and the prime minister of Kenya who is his cousin and Obama has advised and helped finance his campaign in Keyna is a Marxist. ACORN is a Marxist/Maoist organization—which he worked for on voter registration, and he has given them nearly one million dollars from his campaign fund. This is the same organization facing allegations of propagating massive voter fraud in multiple states.

For my CpS 479 students: Missions, as defined in Scripture, should be a passion for all believers in Christ. It is the very heartbeat of the Church and is something that every one of us can play a vital role in.

Your assignment for this week - visit several mission board displays in the Student Center and find out what their information technology needs are. Then post a blog comment here on what you learned. Visit & comment on 2-3 organizations for a C, organizations 4-5 for a B, organizations 6-7 for an A.

Include related comments from your reading of The World is Flat AND  Stop Dating the Church

All comments are due by 5PM this Friday.

presentation information: http://www.aneventapart.com/events/2008/chicago/slides/

Eric Meyer

topic: evaluate HTML/CSS of various submitted websites

As Eric was evaluating the html behind various websites I was reminded of the history of computer science. I present my thoughts in an effort to open a community discussion about the role of knowing the details of html in order to be an effective developer and/or designer.

PRO SIDE:

The ability to see everyone’s source code (i.e. html & javascript) opens the door to some very interesting analysis of peoples’ work. It can be most humbling and is of course frought with lots of opinionated things. but overall it is a very useful way for an html coder to improve his/her writing ability. Good writers are good readers.

CON SIDE:

On the other hand, consider this - is it better to do the low level html or should your tool abstract away all the details of html. Is the exercise of reviewing someone’s html similar to reviewing the machine code of a C++ or Java programmer? Humm??? I wonder if html will go away like machine code and assembly language have “gone away”. They have dissappeared under the hood. Abstracting away by the tools. This is the history of computer science - building developer tools which abstract away the lower level details, thus helping the developer become more productive by focussing on higher level issues.

Will html go the way of assembly language like we’ve seen with compilers? Or will it always be necessary for human eyes to be able to see and modify web pages at the html level?

————————————————————————————–

speaker: Rob Weychert

topic: Design Lessons Learned in Chess

* he read several good books to improve his chess game, after 20 years of playing

* information architecture, design, build

* form a strategy based upon your client; what do they want; who do they want to reach; what is their message

* opening move = information strategy

* middle game = visual design

** strategy - overall plan

** tactics - steps you take to implement the strategy

* endgame = build

* limit the user’s options

* content is king! style (css) + behavior (javascript) ==> layout ==> content

* set expectations! (bobby fisher story from 1972)

* the web allows the receiver of the content to receive it in whatever way they want - this makes a challenge to the designer!

* don’t get too attached to your last move

* find balance in your view of validators (extreme: get rid of all validation errors extreme: who cares!)

* learn from your failures

———————————————————————————-

speaker: Dan Cederholm

topic: Implementing Design: Bulletproof A-Z

* author of simplebits.com

* “handcrafted pixels & text”

* tiny design company in vermont

* craftsmanship reflects the human touch behind the design

* flexibility in design

* case study: icedorhot.com

* need to be able to see/find/keep/improve design patterns

* we should use reset.css on all sites!

* his list of bulletproofing is excellent for developers (see http://www.aneventapart.com/events/2008/chicago/slides/)

* designers should use XScope (shareware product for macs)

———————————————————————————-

speaker: Cameron Moll

topic: The In-House Designer

* designer for LDS church - 30 designers, 100 websites

* focus on importance of relationships

———————————————————————————-

speaker: Curt Cloninger

topic: Arts & Crafts of Web Design

website: lab404.com

* William Morris - father of modern design

* this presentation seemed to be targetted @ designers and was an appeal to create places of beauty

* we need more frilly bits on our websites so this guy will die happy!

* orchestrate things so that you do what you like

* outsource/mechanize the unpleasurable, but do as much of the entire process yourself at least once

———————————————————————————-

speaker: Jeff Veen

topic: Designing the Next Generation of Web Apps

website: veen.com

* left working for google 5 months ago

* if you want to become a speaker, write a book!

* so much data - help people with all of the data in their life to be able to manage it

* gave an example of taking rainfall data - added headers, changed fonts/styles, colored the numbers, replacd the numbers with graphics of different sizes, (becareful not to go too far), redesigned google analytics over 15 months!

* looking for inspiration - history, users,

I ran across this website today in Chicago @ An Event Apart and I believe it to be one of the most practical and worthwhile solutions to America’s credit crisis! It encourages people to save before spending. A very “old time” idea, one which I feel we have gotten too far away from and hence the biggest cause for the mess we find our economy in. People and governments have become drunk with credit. We no longer consider saving for a vacation or buying a car or a big screen TV or ….. Our culture encourages the “you deserve a break today”, “have it your way”, “why wait”, “go for the gusto” attitude. Credit is the fuel which drives this mentality and we have reached a fuel shortage of huge magnitude!

First we need to think about what we are teaching the next generation about money. Here’s an excellent article on how to teach our children the impact of savings vs spending.

When you are ready to start saving for that next project, check out this intreguing website that is designed to encourage you and those who know you, to save for your project. SmartyPig.com

Thanks to the wonders of air transportation & high speed trains we (rundle from CA and ruse and I from SC) arrived safe and sound in the heart of downtown Chicago for Worthwhile’s very first “Event Apart”. About 400 web designers have arrived from around the world. We met 2 designers from Denmark @ breakfast. When asked why they ventured half way around the planet for this event, they exclaimed “Jeffery and Eric!”. Well, I guess I’ll soon know what that means as the opening event is about to begin.

We are in the Chicago Sheraton, which must be quite the place as they tell us Obama was here this weekend. We do have a lovely view of Lake Michigan. Looking forward to a little downtown touring this evening. But in the mean time I’m here to understand the world of graphics designers. What makes them tick? What gets them excited? What do they need to keep producing worthwhile works of art? My ears and eyes are wideopen!

presentation information: http://www.aneventapart.com/events/2008/chicago/slides/

Jeffery Zeldman

topic: what’s a designer?

* every website is a new interface which trains the user how to use it

* teaching Excel is not the same as teaching business

* designers don’t know who they are, what they do, what they are called, how they got where they are, or how much they should be earning!

* good design is invisible

Eric Meyer

topic: debugging web pages

* use Link Checker

* use accessibility checker (not 100% accurate, but a good start)

* use code checkers

* debugging web pages

There seems to be a difference between web designers (look and feel guys) and web developers (coding and debugging guys). However I don’t believe any web creation process can succeed without both! A single person which has BOTH abilities seems FAR MORE EFFICIENT than 2 people who specialize in each. Is this an accurate assessment?

Another twist on this concept: Can a “world class” designer also be a top notch developer? Or does trying to be both make one mediocre at either? Interesting discussion on this topic.

Jason Santa Maria

topic: Storytelling by Design

* graphic resonance - I’m still not sure what this is! nor does google!!!!

* design can’t not communicate

* why are we plagued by all this sameness (all websites look bascially the same!)

* rules of thirds - a way to create tension (this & other techniques don’t apply on the web!)

* check this unique story telling website out!

Sarah Nelson

topic: how to make ideas actionable

“no matter how brilliant you are as an individual if you cannot work together as a group then you won’t make it”

* design criteria - 5-7 simple rules

* constraints give you freedom in your designs

* using frameworks to organize really complex things

* increasing conversion rates

* visual refresh - better term for site redesign

* from idea to creation: divergent stage (come up with design ideas) ==> design criteria (helps you make the switch) ==> convergence (focus on a solution)

examples of design criteria for PayCycles.com

* be human

* work the way your customers do

* set expectations

* show progress

* find efficiencies

Robert Hoekman

topic: interaction design

he took url’s from the audience and critiqued them

theideacenter.org

* set expectations

* purpose, benefit, usage

asufoundation.org

Jason Fried

Designing the Details

* anticipate what the user needs to do next - demoed 2 ways to create a list; the best was the one in which all you had to do is start typing and keep typing; the system anticipated the list items would come right after the name of the list!

* designers need to get as obsessed about words as they are about pixels

* have your prompts (request for input) answer a question

* use thick markers when you are sketching out the design

* be clear over clever

* “delete the selected person” or “delete the 2 selected people” - much better than “delete the selected person(s)”

* search by city, state, country, zip, phone or email - much better than advanced search

this is has great insights into making web apps ENJOYABLE rather than ENDURABLE!

he is the created of BaseCamp & Ruby on Rails

37signals.com - great online book

CpS 479 students, last week you had an excellent opportunity to hear from one of my students, Steven Lee, who is the creator and maintainer of SermonAudio.com, the leading source of online Bible-based sermons. At the end of the presentation we discussed several “take aways”. Using that as a base, I’d like to start a blog topic on “Starting your own web-based business or ministry”. Share you thought, ideas, ambitions, goals, the good, the bad, the ugly about becoming a 21st century web entrepreneur. What does it take, both personally, technically, business-wise, etc.

If you can, site some examples of both other successes and failures. What can you learn and apply from them?

Here are just a few questions to “prime the pump” of getting your brain in gear on this topic.
* what is an entrepreneur?
* how does he/she differ from “the rest of the crowd”?
* what does the Bible teach about this topic (study Duet 8:10-20)?
* what steps can you take to prepare yourself to be an entrepreneur?
* do you know any entrepreneurs? if so, what do you think made them successful (or not)?

* would you like to be an entrepreneur? if so why, if not, why not?

* discuss some entrepreneurial ideas that you have for a web-based business

* is it best to try and start a web-based business on your own or would you team up? if so, what would you look for in putting together a team?

Wikipedia is an excellent place to start.

Here’s something to consider: you want to build a website in your spare time and then sell it for $25M. How would you go about deciding what to build?

Cross-Site Request Forgery is a security threat which allows someone else to access your secure online resources, like bank account, stock transactions, etc. It can happen when you are logged into one website and then surf to another without logging off the secure site. The 2nd site is able to maliciously use the authenticated session and complete transactions, such as transferring funds from a checking account, all under the guise of being the authenticated user. More information is available here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_request_forgery

How does this impact you?

Many of us engage in secure transactions during the normal course of our day. In order to protect our online resources against a possible forgery, it is important that these transactions be completed in one of the following ways:
* logout of the protected site

* open a different browser window using another browser software (Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera)

* close all browsers and open a new session before going to other sites

Think computationally - protect your online resources! Now what’s going on while you are surfing the Web.

I am excited to part of the BJU MBA program which for the past many years has used a satellite delivery system. This year we are making the switch to an online environment. Part of the requirement is that we conduct weekly synchronous online sessions. I’d like to use this blog posting to collect ideas & suggestions from those who are teaching in this new environment.

What works & what doesn’t? Post your comments below. Your ideas will be shared with all who care.

We are once again excited to be taking several programming teams to various programming contests this school year. Now that the teams have been assigned, you need to start thinking through your teamwork problem solving strategies which fits your team the best.

Read this excellent article about teamwork and then discuss with your teammates which strategy will work best for you. Then I want each team to submit a blog comment on your thoughts/ideas/brainstorming. If each team member wants to blog, that is fine. But at least one posted comment for each team.

I would especially like to see feedback from those of you who have been on teams in the past.

Part of a liberal arts education is learning how to think critically about the world around you and be able to formulate opinions and present your ideas. For my computer science and information technology seniors, I’d like to know what topic(s) within our discipline are of most interest to you.

Please do so by submitting a comment to this blog. If you have no ideas, I would encourage you to look at some of my blog posts for ideas. Especially the ones from Web 2.0 Conference I attended last April.

Here’s something to get your creative juices flowing. Comes from the present presidential campaign and is a HUGE topic in our industry. It is know as “cloud computing”. Check out this blog.

The best place to find current topics in computer science is ACM TechNews.

Veil \Veil\ (v[=a]l), n. [OE. veile, OF. veile, F. voile, L.
   velum a sail, covering, curtain, veil, probably fr. vehere to
   bear, carry, and thus originally, that which bears the ship
   on. See Vehicle, and cf. Reveal.]
[Written also vail - but very tough to Google! :-)]

A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.

After a summer break from my teaching ministry, I returned to find an unlabeled extension cord plugged into an outlet in my office. After several attempts to find the meaning of this cord, I finally unplugged it! My reasoning: if it is important, someone will contact me, otherwise who cares. Sure enough, I was told it had something to do with the building’s new HVAC monitoring system!

The other day someone came by to “finish the job” and remove the extension cord. I ended up having a lengthy conversion with him about teaching. He teaches part time @ Greenville Tech and he shared with me some of the opportunities the Lord was giving him to have a personal ministry with some of his students. He has students with drug problems, relationship problems, etc. The thought crossed my mind, wow, how refreshing it would be to teach students whose lives were transparent to their personal problems! Very seldom do I see the “real problems” which are on the hearts of my students. I teach in a world in which the majority of my students have “learned how to act” and are very much veiled about what’s really going on in their heart. I think our system of education (i.e. Christian schools) somewhat breeds this action. If you have problems, I’m afraid the fear is that you will “get in trouble”. As a result I think many of my students (and fellow teachers) live in such a way as to put a social veil over themselves, making it very difficult for others to know what’s really going on inside.

Teaching, for me, is much more than simply imparting knowledge about my subject area. I want to touch my students’ hearts and encourage them into a closer relationship with their Creator and Savior! To do this effectively, I have to depend upon God’s Holy Spirit to help me uncover this social veil so I can touch their heart with Truth and Wisdom. Only then can I claim to be a worthwhile teacher!

Ever since reading what has become the seminal article on the topic of computational thinking by Jeanette Wing, I have been intrigued by this thought - is this something which ALL liberal arts college students should be taught? and CAN all liberal arts college students learn this to some degree?

In looking for a defition of “computation thinking” I ran across a rather thought provoking statement in a blog from the British Computer Society which said “Computer scientists are the new engineers who help facilitate the work of all other disciplines.”

I would like to start a dialog with my fellow educators to discuss this topic more in depth. How can we improve our students success in a computationally driven society by teaching them computational thinking? What is it? What’s the best way to do it? Is it the responsibility of the Computer Science Department? How can we change our 6-hour liberal arts “math/science/computer science” requirements to help us do it? Where do you start?

I suggest starting with reading the following articles to get your thought juices flowing. Then jump into the blogosphere by posting your comments below!

Jeanette Wing’s ACM Viewpoint article on Computational Thinking

British Computer Society blog on Computation Thinking

Attention HPCS Teachers: to encourage thoughtful discussion on the topic of using Web 2.0 technologies in education, I’ll offer a free Cody Webster t-shirt to the first 4 faculty who submit thought provoking comments to this blog. 

This is the title of a faculty in-service presentation I am giving @ BJU this week. It will be 3 fold in purpose.

• Informational
• Inspirational
• Motivational

We will discuss the meaning of Web 2.0 and how it differs from Web 1.0 with several examples such as blogging, social bookmarking, social networking, wikis & of course Twitter.

I will share a personal testimony regarding a recent conversion to Christ experience which heavily involved Internet technologies.

Finally I hope to motivate faculty to consider the impact they can have on their students using some of these technologies both within and without the classroom.

Note to those who attended Thursday’s session: I ran out of time to demonstrate the wonders of Jott.com - be sure and check it out. Well worth your time!!

Web 2.0 Presentation (pdf format)

Web 2.0 Presentation (powerpoint format)

Web 2.0 Handout (pdf format)

WhatIf Presentation (pdf format) - these are apparently things educators have said over the years when faced with new technologies; I haven’t verified the accuracy of these so I am sharing them for their “edutainment” value.

If you are interested in understanding the “digital natives” who will be sitting in your classrooms this year, I highly recommend a very motivational and eye opening video presentation called Do You Know. Details on my blog.

I invite BJU & HPCS faculty to comment on how you are integrating Web 2.0 technologies into your courses and personal relationships with your students. Simply click on the “comment” link below. All ideas will be shared on this blog.

Gary, a Chinese friend Joseph & I met in Datong, China, asked me a very thought provoking question this week - “how do I teach my children to be rich?”.

I got thinking about what the Bible says about riches. Over 2000 verses speak about money & riches. This would seem to be the best place to teach children how to handle riches properly.

I like to read a chapter of Proverbs each day. I encourage each of my children to do the same thing. Especially if you hit a “dry spot” in your walk with the Lord & don’t know where to read. Today’s proverb speaks about riches:

Proverbs 10:4-5 A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Here are just a few Bible principles on wealth:
- give to the Lord no less than 10% of all your income (before taxes - this is the first fruits principle taught clearly in Scripture)
- work hard
- stay out of debt - avoid it like the plague
- give to the needs of others
- don’t set your love/focus on money
- invest/save for the future, don’t spend all you earn

For my sons I would like to help each of you find an investment - stock, land, something that increases in value - even baseball cards or stamps!  :-)  Sara sorry I didn’t do this with you before you married, but I am confident God has given you a husband with whom you can invest. Work with him. Support him. Encourage him. Work together.

In the end, I suppose the best teaching on this topic comes by example. As a parent, that’s a pretty daunting thought! Lord help me have the right perspective on riches that I might pass it along to my children for your glory!!

This one blew me away! I was away from home working on payroll via remote connection on my Mac. This involves setting up an Excel spreadsheet with data I get from a webpage. I simply copy the data from the page into Excel. But for some (yet unknown) reason, I couldn’t access the webpage from my home computer remotely, so I accessed it from my Mac, pasted it into an Excel spreadsheet and emailed the xls file to my home computer. From their I copied the data into a payroll spreadsheet I use every month. But this time I noticed a problem. All of my dates changed to exactly 4 years and 1 day away! At first I thought I must have opened the wrong spreadsheet. After running a simply little test on dates, I discovered there is a difference between the Mac and Windows in the way Excel stores dates. So I started googling (google phrase “excel dates mac windows”) to determine why and how to make it stop!

Of course in order to make storing, comparing and doing calculations on dates, they are stored as a number. Therefore you must establish a base starting point for the number 1. Turns out Mac and Windows Excel USE DIFFERENT STARTING DATES! This is the part that blew me away. Why?

Here’s what I discovered: (source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303216)

How to Transfer Files Between Excel for the Macintosh and Excel for Windows

By default, Excel for the Macintosh uses the 1904 date system, and Excel for Windows uses the 1900 date system. This means that when you type the serial number 1 in Excel for the Macintosh and format it as a date, Excel displays it as 1/2/1904 12:00 a.m. Excel for Windows displays the serial number 1 as 1/1/1900 12:00 a.m. If you transfer files from Excel for the Macintosh to Excel for Windows, this difference in the date systems should not cause a problem, because the date system is stored in each file. However, if you copy and paste between files with different date systems that originated on different platforms, dates may be displayed four years and one day away from their correct date.

In Microsoft Excel for Mac, you can change to the 1900 date system by clicking Preferences (on the Edit menu in Excel 2001 for Mac, or on the Excel menu in later versions), clicking the Calculation tab, and then clicking to clear the 1904 date system check box. In Excel for Windows, you can change to the 1904 date system by clicking Options on the Tools menu, clicking the Calculation tab, and then clicking to select the 1904 date system check box.

For many years, part of our backyard has been the home for a pet rabbit I like to call “The Mother of Hope” (MoH). As one of God’s creations, she existed to bring glory to her Creator and pleasure to her Keeper, my lovely wife Karen. You see MoH brought glory to her Creator by doing exactly what she was created to do – be a rabbit. J And a good rabbit she was. She gave birth to many other little rabbits and took great care of them. She was a strong creature who enjoyed many good years of life under the care of the BEST RABBIT KEEPER on the planet, my dear wife Karen. Thru Karen’s unconditional love she has for her rabbits, I have learned yet a little more about the unconditional love of my Heavenly Father toward his children. Karen took excellent care of MoH, day in and day out. Never did she complain. She enjoys sharing love and kindness with her rabbits. I can see a little bit of rabbit in my wife. She is quiet, gentle, doesn’t like sudden changes, enjoys being cuddled, rarely complains, and takes great care of her children.

God’s timing is perfect, even in the death of a pet rabbit. If he knows when a bird falls from the sky, I am certain he knows when a rabbit dies. You see today was a very big day in the history of The Worthwhile Company. We are moving into our very own building! I have been anxiously awaiting all that would involve and was ready to jump in with all the energies God has given to me. But yesterday afternoon the Lord started preparing for MoH’s departure. I was run off the road by a logging truck. This resulted in my having to take a little extra time this morning to go hunt down the owner of the logging company so I could explain what one of his drivers had done. That put me “behind” in my intended schedule of picking up the moving truck and getting things ready for the big move. I came home to take a quick shower and get going. As I was getting ready to go, that’s when Karen, on her daily, never tiring routine of feeding the rabbits and giving them a bottle of ice to help them coop with the heat of the day, discovered MoH had suffered a serious stroke. I cannot tell you how thankful I am to know the Lord redirected my steps so I would be home at this time! It gave me an opportunity to demonstrate to my lovely Karen, how much she means to me and how much I love her, unconditionally! I was actually amazed at how God has given me a desire to be with Karen, rather than be helping my great Worthwhile employees move the office.

Now some may think the death of a pet is no big deal. I believe God gave us animals for object lessons to teach us how to love unconditionally and to help us understand the reality of life that we must all face death. The Bible says “It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment.”  Are you ready for the day? Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes to the Father but by me.” That’s pretty specific. If you don’t have a living relationship with the Creator of the Universe, then repent of your sins and accept the free gift of forgiveness of your sins so you can experience the greatest relationship in all the world – a born again child of God!